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These days, Nicole Kidman is taking her time

Omega ambassador admits her take on time has changed in recent years.

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Time hits a little bit different these days for Nicole Kidman.

“It seems like it’s just whizzing by,” the Academy Award-winning actor says with a sigh.

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The global pandemic has prompted many people to have a sort of “What year is it?” grasp on the rapidly passing hours, Kidman included.

“Since we’ve all been through COVID together, we’re all like, ‘How many years just went by?'” Kidman says. “I mean, it either seems incredibly long, or very, very, very fast.”

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Speaking at an event for the luxury watch brand Omega in Nashville, Tenn., where Kidman lives with her family, including husband Keith Urban and daughters Sunday Rose and Faith, the decorated actor talked openly about how her concept of time has shifted in recent years.

“I really value it now,” Kidman says. “In our family, we always say that the most valuable thing is time. If you’re going to give it up, or give it to someone, know what you’re doing with it.

“I think that’s become such a huge part of the choices we make now.”

While Kidman has undoubtedly been busy lately — with the series Nine Perfect Strangers along with films Being the Ricardos and The Northman among her recent resumé additions — she says she is much more careful about the projects she signs on for, noting that she tends to make her decision based on “gut feeling” over anything else.

“There are opportunities, things I would love to do, but you can’t do it all. At some point, you just have to sit still,” she says. “And sitting still is sometimes the greatest reward for me. And learning that was a very, very hard road.”

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Nowadays, the stillness between projects is “glorious,” she says.

“That’s partly because I’ve done that thing where you burn yourself out, because you’re just trying to cram everything in,” Kidman says. “Because it’s like, I can, I can, I can. And then going, actually, I can’t. I physically can’t do it, I mentally can’t do it. And it’s not satiating anyway.”

While Kidman seems confident in her approach to project selection at this point in her career, she admits she still occasionally waivers. And for the occasions where she wishes she could take on a project but can’t because of family obligations or other projects — or simply said no to something that, in hindsight, she wishes she had of given the green light to — Kidman utilizes an interesting visualization tactic to allow herself to move on.

“Part of that is going, well, you’re going to have to just be able to perform in your head. To read a play and go, I would have loved to have done this, you know, and it would be Ibsen or Chekhov, and I think I can’t do that. It’s too much time there. I don’t have it. So it’s going to have to be enough to sit here and picture it. And then it’ll be gone. Just as the actual experience of doing it would be gone,” she says. “What would it have cost me? Anyway, now I’ve gotten really existential. But, that’s the stuff I grapple with.”

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Despite feeling increasingly protective of her work-personal life balance, the longtime actor — Kidman’s film debut was in the 1983 movie Bush Christmas — still harbours “a fire and a curiosity” for new projects.

One area of her life where Kidman will happily draw a clear line in the sand is regarding time spent on her phone. When asked about her choice to wear a wristwatch when time is so readily available on our devices, Kidman delivered a response that proved she doesn’t waiver on this point.

“Part of my thing with even wearing a watch is so that I’m not always checking my phone,” Kidman says. “Because, checking your phone for the time is actually sort of dangerous because it pulls you into the vortex of … I’ll just quickly check this. Oh, I’ll just quickly respond to this. Before you know it … you’ve just wasted time because you were checking the time and then you were dragged in.”

Nicole Kidman wore the Omega Constellation Co-Axial Master Chronometer 34 mm with Sedna gold and diamonds to the One Night in Nashville event.
Nicole Kidman wore the Omega Constellation Co-Axial Master Chronometer 34 mm with Sedna gold and diamonds to the One Night in Nashville event. Omega

A longtime collector of vintage timepieces and jewelry designs — Kidman recalls receiving her first timepiece in her youth, and how it forever changed the way she viewed each passing hour.

“It was a Christmas present from my parents. It wasn’t a very expensive watch, but it made me feel like a grown up,” she recalls. “I was entering the world, where I was going to be responsible, as my own timekeeper …

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“It was a grown-up thing to have. I wanted to grow up fast. I was that kid. I couldn’t get there fast enough. Now I’d like to go back,” Kidman adds. “It went by quite quick, because I started working when I was 14. Then, I had to be responsible for being on set. I had to be responsible for getting to work and not missing the bus and all of those things. I think working at a very young age taught me a sense of punctuality and what time is, as well, as being a professional.”

As a longtime ambassador for Omega — and a current co-star in its latest Omega My Choice campaign alongside fellow actor Zoe Kravitz and model Kaia Gerber — Kidman has had her fair share of access to exceptional timepieces over the years. Her favourite watches have always been those that tell a story — either with age or with size — and therefore make for a memorable wrist adornment.

“Right now I’d love the biggest watch imaginable. It is something that I feel I just like the strength of it,” she says. “Also, because they’re jewelry. You can wear them with a beautiful evening dress and it’s jewelry. And that’s something I collect — vintage jewelry. I love seeing how they were crafted with diamonds and rubies and the most beautiful sapphires …

“I love vintage. But I love vintage clothes as well. I’m a vintage girl.”

Postmedia News was a guest of Omega in Nashville. The brand neither reviewed nor approved this article.

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